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Saturday, May 14, 2011

Glassy-Eyed

When I was a kid my dad took a course in stained glass, and then taught my mom and my brother and me. For a while we all really got into it: our kitchen was set up with the electric grinder, and the table was where we did all the cutting and foiling and soldering. We made lots of gifts for family, and even sold a few things at the local flea market that summer. The combination of creativity, power tools, and danger made it pretty darn cool for a middle-schooler like me.

As a kid I made flowers and butterflies and other rather boring whatnots, so realizing all the geeky possibilities is making me see the art in a whole new light. I mean, think about it: How perfect would a Mario-themed Tiffany lamp be? Or a Ghostbuster's sun-catcher?

Anyway, I'm still recovering from our two days of scavenger hunting at Disney World (can't....move...) and just thought I'd share. Assuming Blogger is working at the moment, of course. Heh. Stay tuned for a report on the hunt. (Again, assuming Blogger is working.)

Oh, and gimmie some more geeky ideas for stained glass, peeps: what symbols/characters would you want to see? Just, you know, for conversation's sake? ;)

OMG, the Doctor Who possibilities are endless! A stained glass TARDIS would be gorgeous, of course, and can you imagine a rendering of one of the red-headed Companions? For my money, though, the prize would go to whoever could produce an Ood.

Well, when you say stained glass and geekiness, I immediately thought of Kingdom Hearts and those awesome stained glass images of snow white and such in the tutorial levels. What about a stained glass disney/ kingdom heart themed item? maybe lay it in a shadow box with a light behind it?

Hogwarts enshrined in stained glass would be amazing! So would the Dawn Treader, or dragons, or x-wings. I'm sure there a million and one awesome things you could come up with...looking forward to seeing the photos :)

I don't know about anyone else but I think a stained glass Eye of Sauron would be EPIC.

Some more wonderful possibilities:TardisZelda (sooo many Zelda possibilities)Space InvadersSnow White with the poison appleOkami (ANYTHING from that game would be beautiful)Gir from Invader ZimKirbySpiderman (but it would have to be huge so it looked like he was climbing up your wall)Some of the X-men charactersAnything from the Mario characters like maybe Rosalina and the stars from Super Mario Galaxy

I'm definately loving all the 3D tardis ideas - perfect! But id also want a stained glass flying snitch sun catcher! Or a 3D K-9...or an image of ravenclaws diadem or a a box with the top having the hogwarts crest and then each side having one of the house crests......Now I really want to make all of these!! Post a tutorial someday?

Bwhaha! I took a stained glass course last year, but unfortunately, haven't convinced myself to do anything like this yet. What would be really awesome would be to combine it with the old painted glass style of cathedrals, art nuveau, and geek.

DragonNight is right...Zelda seems perfect for stained glass. To continue the stained glass in Star Wars that you started, the iconic crossed sabers of Luke and Darth Vadar under the stairs would be pretty cool!

Blogger was down when I tried to wish you a happy birthday, so here's a belated happy day to ya! You share the day with Edward Lear, Florence Nightengale, Katharine Hepburn, Bruce Boxleitner, and Tony Hawk. Good company.:-)

The one and only thing I have just realized I cannot live without is a Boo (from Mario) made of glass. I can't even buy a plushie or any merch of him because although he's MY favorite there's never any Boo merch when I go looking :(

I also like the idea of simple images that symbolize something. So here are my geeky ideas in that vein...

Cheshire Cat smile and eyesSteampunk top hat with gogglesT-Rex mouth with teeth (Like this: Click here)Dr. Who's tieST:TNG communicator logo (I can see this with three split panes behind it, one yellow, one red, one blue)Lightsaber (one each of all colors, of course, including purple)HedwigThe SnitchHarry's glasses and scarCaptain Jack's compass and ring

My first thought was companion cube. Then, my second - and possibly cooler - thought was portal holes. It would just be fun and geeky to have them and be able to move them around. Put the entrance one on your front door, and the exit... where ever your guests deserve to be... lol.

Does anyone remember the movie Young Sherlock Holmes? It was a Spielberg venture and I loved it. Also happened to contain one of the earliest CGI effects ever in a big film. It was a stained glass window of a knight in a church that came to life and (sadly) caused a priest to run into the street in front of a carriage. I would LOVE to have a reproduction of that window in my house. (It doesn't exist in real life because it was CGI, right?) I would definitely give bonus points to any friend of mine that would recognise it. And the creepy factor would be delicious.

@Christina H the CGI knight from young Sherlock Holmes would be fantastic! Did you ever watch the Amazing Stories tv series in the 80's? Spielburg was producer and/or director for the 2 seasons it aired. It also had that knight (or a monochrome prototype of it)in the opening sequence. If you haven't seen it, check Netflix.

I agree with the others and say the Epbot robot is screaming for some stained glass treatment. :) It's funny that you brought this up because I used to do stained glass, too, and recently I've been itching to do it again. Expensive hobby, though.

The stained glass floors from the Kingdom Hearts intro levels! I actually looked up tutorials on stained glass a while back with the Kingdom Hearts pieces in mind. It looked a little too complicated to teach myself, so I gave up on it for the time being. Would LOVE some replicas, though.

The highlight of our Tokyo trip (aside from finding goodies for you) was the visit to the Studio Ghibli Museum. They have stained glass everywhere that captures images from the films. If you ever go, a trip to the museum is a MUST! Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Or Yen. Whatever.

I purchased a book that has pictures of all of them, but wasn't able to take any pics of them because you can't have cameras in the museum. I did, however, find some websites that have some pics.

Personally, I would LOVE to see an 80s cartoon/video game themed project. Think HUGE and with all sorts of characters like Carebears, Popples, Rainbow Brite, TMNT, any Disney from that time (Little Mermaid, eh?), and of course, Mario and Zelda must make an appearance! It would be EPIC.

I'm actually just getting started in trying to make some of these! My stained glass tardis sold yesterday (http://www.etsy.com/transaction/50002640) and I've got a triforce in my etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/listing/74370226/stained-glass-triforce-suncatcher). There are some great ideas in the comments here!

okay, so I actually TOOK a stained glass class with Jen once, and I remember the instructor told us that it was impossible to cut concave shapes out of glass. So I'm looking at Spock's nose and thinking: "how?!"